England vs South Africa: 2nd Test Match Thread

[Guest]

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Here is the match thread for the 2nd test at headlingley

Likely teams

England: Strauss,Cook,Trott,KP,Bell,Taylor,Prior,Bresnan,Swann,Broad,Anderson

S.Africa: Smith,Peterson,Amla,Kallis,AB,Rudolph,Duminy,Philander,Steyn,Morkel,Tahir

Although massive rumours going around that, england will play 4 quicks and leave out swann!

DISCUSS MATCH HERE

[msp83]

But impresseve stuff from Kallis, keeping his pace up over 130 KPH throughout the over.

[Duty281]

If Morkel or any other SA bowler injures himself during the pointless bowling charade, won't Smith be in for a bit of stick?

[Biltong]

Why?

[msp83]

Ooh!! very nearly a slip catch brought about by Morkel there!.

[Biltong]

I have to say, Kallis, Morkel and Steyn bowled with good pace and accuracy this session.

[msp83]

Smith's just going on, Kallis continues. He's just looking for another wicket, trying to play a few mental games it seems.

[msp83]

That's it, Smith has called it off.

[msp83]

Man Of the Match? Only one choice for Me, and that's Kevin Pietersen!. An absolutely terrific innings, and 4 wickets in the match to add!.
Alviro Petersen batted pretty well for South Africa, but KP's knock was one in another class all together.

[mystiroakey]

I would actually give MOTM to broad- because his late bowling spell actually created abit of interest to this match

[Liam]

Dissapointing in the end. England never really went for it although I think psychologically and from our point of view, our chances of the win went when KP hauled out to mid on.

Bowling rather poor 1st innings, South Africa should never have gotten to 400. Feel if we pitched the ball up more we would have got rewards. Every play and miss was from a ball pitched up at the batsmen.

Broad has gone back to his old ways in bowling back of a length and he just doesn't have the pace to be able to trouble the batsmen with that length. He then began pitching the ball up and low and behold, he took a shed full of wickets, including superb spells against India and the Aussies, and now finally, after pitching the ball up, against SA. The same goes to Finn, he bowled way to short, his bounce will cause problems on a good length, why was he banging the ball in?

I would drop Bresnan for Finn next test. I think Finn still offers more and at his home ground he will know the conditions well. Swann to come back in for Bresnan. Strauss, Flower and the selectors will hang their heads in shame for not playing Swann. Even on the most seamer freindly wickets, you should always have a spinner. Not all wickets for spinners are taking with balls that rip left to right and vice versa. Allot of Swann's wickets are because of the drift he get's, which get's batsmen in all sorts of trouble as a result.

[eirebilly]

Who ended up getting MotM? I would have given that to KP, excellent performance from him. Just slightly better than Petersen and Broad.

On a side note, its good to see Broad back in amongst the wickets, he could be a matchwinner at Lords.

[Pal Joey]

I thought it was more of a case of the SA batsmen just going for some runs. They were always going to lose a few with that approach. Fair play to Broad though... he'll most likely be the star England bowler at Lord's.

[Biltong]

KP did indeed get MOTM.

Yes, LB, it was a bit of both actually, I thought Broad got to very good deliveries in with his LBW dismissals to Duminy and Philander.

AB a tad unlucky from what the studio panel said at Supersport ( I didn't see that) as well as the third Umpire gave Smith out when there was no nick (didn't see that either)

So I think circumstances between some wierd dismissals, some good bowling by Broad and some poor shots made it an exciting afternoon.

The English must be getting real nervous now as they can't win the series anymore.

[eirebilly]

Lords has usually been a happy hunting ground for Broad so he may yet prove pivitol there. Whats good for SA is that there is a 10 day break between which is more than ample time for them to solve any niggling injuries.

I think that we are in stall for a cracking match at Lords.

[Pal Joey]

So who's struggling with injuries. Smith (knee), Kallis (back) and Petersen (hamstring). Kallis and Petersen might struggle to be fit in time.

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

What reserve batsmen do the saffers have?

[Fists of Fury]

There was bugger all wrong with Kallis. He batted and bowled so the spasms had clearly stopped. Plus, spasms aren't like an injury. They're either there or they're not - if they're not then you're 100% fit.

[protea438]

What reserve batsmen do the saffers have?

Faf du Plessis is officially called up as backup. The South African A side is playing Ireland (or trying to - weather issues) so they will take from there I suppose

[Pal Joey]

So Fists, do you think it's a ploy to make things sound worse than they are?

[Fists of Fury]

I wouldn't say that LB, but Kallis is a certainty for Lord's.

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